Critical Studies on Heidegger: The Emerging Body of Understanding

Original reading of Heidegger suggesting what his project could mean for building an ethical way of life now and in the future.

In these boldly original studies, Heidegger's thought is carried critically and constructively beyond its original limitations, re-presenting his project in terms of an emerging body of understanding, making sense of this project not only in its historical, cultural significance but also in its bearing on the emergence of future possibilities. Continuing Heidegger's commitment to a way of thinking that is formed from reflectively lived experience, David Michael Kleinberg-Levin suggests what can be learned regarding the character of our typical and habitual ways of looking and seeing, hearing and listening, and touching, holding, handling, and gesturing. The body of ontological understanding consequently emerges as we learn how to take responsibility for the meaning of being in forming and developing the character of our relationship to all the beings in our world. In this original reading of Heidegger's thought, Kleinberg-Levin suggests what his project could mean for an ethical way of life.

David Michael Kleinberg-Levin is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Northwestern University. His many books include Redeeming Words: Language and the Promise of Happiness in the Stories of Döblin and Sebald and Before the Voice of Reason: Echoes of Responsibility in Merleau-Ponty's Ecology and Levinas's Ethics, both published by SUNY Press.